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Classroom Spending A recent school board meeting budget presentation in the area of “core curriculum” was given by outgoing Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Joan Matula. A review of that presentation shows that spending in this area is not unreasonable, with some caveats. The projected enrollments for the 2006-2007 school year—numbers that are, as Joan Matula pointed out, subject to change—will show a slight increase overall. In grades K-3 there is a projected increase of 36 students, in grades 4-5 there is a projected decrease of 14 students, and in grades 6-8 there is a projected increase of 25 students. That means that the overall enrollment for the whole district is projected to be an increase of 47 students for a total of 2285—or about a 2% increase over this year. Certainly this is not a huge influx of children. Spending on these students in the area of “core curriculum” was defined for this presentation largely in terms of teacher salaries and money for textbooks and supplies. That is the “catch” if there is one. The dollars that must be spent on health benefits and other employee related benefits and contributions were not included in this presentation. Since this year the teacher’s union and the school board are negotiating a new contract, there may be good reason why such a hot potato was left out of the figures. The other caveat is that other spending related to classrooms, such as technology in the form of computers, other hardware, and software, is not included in the figures for “supplies” and “textbooks”. Nonetheless, it is clear that overall spending in this area is restrained for the coming year. The budget for teacher salaries in kindergarten through grade 5 shows a 4% increase over the prior year with staff levels essentially flat. In grades 6-8 there are 3.5 new positions being added (pity the poor teacher who must turn to amputation in order to work), which results in a 7% increase over the prior year. For counselors and intervention staff, there is a 4-5% increase in salaries. Increases in salary where no new staff are added can be attributed to teachers moving up on the salary guide due to length of experience or additional education, plus contractual increases. For the most part, the money for supplies and textbooks will drop in the 2006-2007 school year. This is said to be due to an abnormal bump-up that existed in 2005-2006 as new purchases were made to outfit new classrooms and replace older textbooks. At Three Bridges School spending on supplies is expected to be 75% of the prior year and spending on textbooks 17% of the prior year, for a total of $97K overall. At Whitehouse School, spending on supplies is slated at 58% of the prior year and textbooks 28% of the prior year for a total of 111K overall. Whitehouse School has a higher enrollment. In Holland Brook School, spending on supplies will likely be up 17% over the past year, said to be because of extra literacy consumables that are needed. Textbook spending will be 5% of the prior year. That makes $133K overall. The Readington Middle School spending will be 73% of the prior year for supplies, and an additional 37% over the prior year on textbooks, for a total of $466K overall. So, what does it all mean? When looking strictly at teacher salaries, textbooks and classroom supplies, spending for the 2006-2007 school year is very reasonable. However, spending on other classroom related areas is not included in the analysis. Even so, it is evident that an effort has made to keep spending down to a minimum. |
